I did see this! It makes sense though. Fat cells are cells just like any other cells in the body. If other cells can become infected by viruses, mutate, and start forming defective cells, then it makes sense that fat cells could do it too. And I thought it was interesting that 1/3 of obese people have this virus. I think it just makes people more susceptible to gaining weight. I wonder if they can see if any non-obese people have this virus...now that would be interesting!

On a side note, I love Megyn Kelly. I think she's hilarious.

__________________EMILY“Always behave like a duck — keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath.” –Jacob Braude

It doesn't appear as if a cure is needed as it implies that resistance is built within a couple months (up to 3 months it says). Also so it says 33&#37; of obese people they tested it and 11% of thin people they tested had the virus? so... why are the thin people thin?

Although some of my weight gain came on pretty quick, I can't link my obesity to a 3 month span.

I don't think there's anything to be angry or offended over, it's interesting research, and it's only one very tiny piece of a very large puzzle. I think a very serious flaw in weight loss research to this point has been an assumption that obesity has a single cause, and therefore a single treatment. I think that it's a bit like trying to find a cure for headaches, and treating all headaches the same regardless of whether caused by stress, migraine, sinus infection, brain tumor or blow to the head.

It's no wonder that no single treatment for obesity is effective, if the causes, and contributing factors are tremendously varied, as I suspect they are.

I think it is more of a way to pass the buck so to speak w/ accountablility. I would love to blame a mysterious virus for my love of unhealthy foods, but the truth is that I can't control it sometimes.

But most thin people who just want to drop a quick 10 will assume that they have the virus and will pay out the wazoo for a "cure."

__________________
Still trying again. Never completely quiting this journey.Pounds to lose till lowest weight:Obsessed with the spin of sparkly hoopsMy personal hooping blog
Hit my highest weight again due to pregnancy. Nursing on WW.

I believe in information. I would find it offensive if after finding this viral connection, the researchers decided "we can't tell anyone about this, because some people may misconstrue or misuse the information." Assuming that people "can't handle the truth," now that I find offensive.

I don't think most overweight folks are stupid, except in desperation. Desperation makes a lot of otherwise sane folks do stupid things, not only in the weight arena but also in things like get-rich-quick or get-famous-quick schemes.

We've known there are genes that contribute to obesity, and that too was initially met with the fear that some folks would use "fat genes" as an excuse, and of course some folks do, but folks looking for an excuse always find one, and I doubt that having one more excuse available increases a person's likelihood to use them. I know the opposite also happens, because for most of my life, I thought there was something deeply wrong with me that my relationship with food and my weight was drastically different than any of my family members or anyone I knew. When I first heard the genetic factors, it started to make sense, that I possibly might have inherited a tendency towards obesity. I'm adopted and to follow the weight pattern in my family, you do see very clear family patterns. My sisters are my parents biokids and one has followed my mother's weight gain pattern (all in the hips in the late 20's) and my other sister has followed my father (slim all his life, at least until retirement). To me, the possibility of a genetic component did not inspire me to think, "I'm just naturally fat, and so there's no use fighting it, so I'll just eat whatever I want and lay on the couch all day - it's ok it's in my genes." Nope, it made me think, "Ohhh, maybe that's why this is so difficult for me, maybe that explains why I'm so darned, freakin' starving all the time, not because I'm crazy, weak, or lazy." It didn't prevent me from, and in fact inspired me to being willing to work harder, and cut myself a little more slack when I fell short.

I think it's like if you told one person that most folks learned to play the piano in a week, and another that it took years to become good at it, which kid do you think will give up after they've been playing for a month and still aren't very good.

I think understanding all the pieces, even if some people can misuse pieces of the puzzle, in the long run makes the situation better not worse.

Kaplods, I agree information is good and actually for some reason this virus sounds familiar, maybe there was something similar found not too long ago or maybe these are the results of the finding?

Also, it might be that the virus affects those who were fat as children differently than those that are skinny versus those that got fat as adults. If the virus multiplies fat cells and I believe those that were obese as children have more fat cells than those that were obese as adults, then it might mean a greater gain in weight? It might also mean a 5 lb gain on a skinny person versus a 50 lb gain on an obese person. Who knows?

I think its interesting that they are finding things. Of course, would it mean that fat people would needed to be tested for the virus before entering a country? Or something similar? It does say its highly contagious.

I think they talked about that in the article. By the time you're fat, you've already recovered from the virus. The cold symptoms would be long gone, and the person would no longer be contagious by the time they gained any weight. While it is highly contagious, it's only a cold virus, so it's not generally something that would be tested for by any country - and they'd have to test anyone with cold symptoms, as whether they were currently fat would have no bearing on whether they could pass along the virus, since they'd only be contagious for a very short period, long before they became fat. Since there are thousands of cold viruses, I don't see there being a practical way to test everyone with a cold, for whether it's the specific strain that effects fat cells.